Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. There in the world would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the fools whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had left them a hundred thousand a year, and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why fools are always in favor of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favor of equality.